The Universal Web Developer
As web developers, we’re often unaware that we build exclusion into our projects. Whether it’s deliberate or subconscious, the outcome is the same: we’ve made it hard to access.
Sir Tim Berners Lee, inventor of the web, had a vision about what the web should be:
The dream behind the Web is of a common information space in which we communicate by sharing information. Its universality is essential: the fact that a hypertext link can point to anything, be it personal, local or global, be it draft or highly polished.
“Its universality is essential.” That short phrase describes the most exciting and fundamental aspect of the Web: that anyone can access it, on any device, at any time, from anywhere. It’s a wonderful vision, aspirational and egalitarian.
Status Quo
In the arms race of modern web/app development, it seems we’ve stopped caring about that universality. We expect everyone to be on high-end devices, with high speed access, and so we design our software for these users, sticking a middle finger up to everyone else.
We expect users to give up their data to our silos, mine it for its wealth, and build on it (or discard it) when our Small Biz is acquired by Big Corp. We don’t value our users, or their data. We pay little heed to longevity or preservation. The ephemeral nature of the Web is celebrated as a virtue, the short-term gains considered more valuable than the long-term view.
Enable and Empower
Have web-developers forgotten our role? We are supposed to be enablers, not custodians. We should empower people by providing software that works simply and universally. We shouldn’t be making decisions about how people access information and services. It’s not our place to dictate who can use the web or on what terms. What we wish for as developers often has no relation with what users want or need.
There’s no doubt that a large proportion of modern software is not universally accessible. Apps and games that are only available through curated stores require users to have devices with a minimum spec. And many of these apps simply aren’t available anywhere else. We might consider many of these creations to be outside the scope of “universally accessible”. But accepting this does not mean we have to perpetuate it.
Change the viewpoint
When we’re building the next digital experience that requires a big screen, a fat broadband pipe, and only works on the very latest browser, or requires the very latest most powerful smartphone, we should stop and think for a moment.
We must consider the users with the slow connection, the small screen, the underpowered phone, and think about them accessing our service or site, or the information we’re providing. We must think about the technical decisions we’re making that might prevent access. Have we built something universally accessible? If not, why not? Who made the decisions to limit access, and what are they gaining from it?
Let’s think about the power of the web to bring people together. Let’s really think about what we can build that’s universally accessible, and with greater benefit than the thousands of pointless apps that litter the digital wasteland. Instead of being developers that simply do what we’re told, let’s instead take an active role in making better software that enables and empowers people.
Let’s not just be web-developers. Let’s be universal web-developers.